Let me take a couple minutes to summarize the items in today's packet on page ___.
Item 1 is from the Wall Street Journal titled No Need to Panic About Global Warming. 1
It is signed by 16 credentialed scientists. They have a message to any candidate for public office:
"There is no compelling scientific argument for drastic action to 'decarbonize' the world's economy."
And "aggressive greenhouse-gas control policies are not justified economically."
Item 2 is titled A country in denial about its fiscal future. 2
Robert Samuelson suggests our elected leaders are not up to the task of preventing government deficits from causing a severe financial crisis.
The "giveaway politics" of the past has resulted in more benefits to more people without requiring the appropriate tax revenues. Democrats and Republicans in Congress are loathe to shift to a "takeaway politics" which would both reduce benefits and raise taxes significantly.
Samuelson is correct that taxing the rich will not solve the long-term budget problem. However, I question whether he appreciates that increasing revenues to the government is best accomplished by not raising tax rates.3
Item 3 is titled The Systemic Poison of U.S. Debt.4
Government raises revenue through taxation or borrowing.
Clearly, it cannot tax its way out of the debt problem. It will need inflation to cover its debt. But history shows governments tend to collapse their economies when they try to inflate their way out of the problem.5
Our present Gross Domestic Product ( GDP ) provides only the illusion of growth through debt expansion, and is not a measure of true productive output.6
And today's Consumer Price Index ( CPI ) is close to meaningless.
Item 4 in the packet shows a truer picture of consumer inflation calculated according to the more accurate 1980-based criteria.7
In the face of the mounting debt crisis, the ruling class continues to "kick the can down the road."
Who knows where the end of the road is?
A day of reckoning is coming.
For Obama and the Reid Senate, let's make that day Tuesday, November 6th.
Thank you
-- Peter Cooper